1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to capturing, storing, and retrieving synchronized voice, screen and video interactions, in general and to advanced methods for recording interactions for Customer Experience Management (CEM) and for quality management (QM) purposes, in particular.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A major portion of the interaction between a modern business and its customers are conducted via the Call Center or Contact Center. These somewhat overlapping terms relate to a business unit which manages and maintains interactions with the business' customers and prospects, whether via means of phone in the case of the Call Center and/or through computer-based media such as e-mail, web chat, collaborative browsing, shared whiteboards, Voice over IP (VOIP), etc. These electronic media have transformed the Call Center into a Contact Center handling not only traditional phone calls, but also complete multimedia contacts. Recording digital voice, data and sometimes video is common practice in Call Centers and Contact Centers as well as in trading floors and in bank branches. Such recordings are typically used for compliance purposes, when such recording of the interactions is required by law or other means of regulation, risk management, limiting the businesses' legal exposure due to false allegations regarding the content of the interaction or for quality assurance using the re-creation of the interaction to evaluate an agent's performance. Current systems are focused on recording phone calls such as Voice, VoIP and computer based interactions with customers such as e-mails, chat sessions, collaborative browsing and the like, but are failing to address the recording of the most common interactions, those done in walk-in environments where the customer has a frontal, face-to-face, interaction with a representative. This solution refers to any kind of frontal, face to face point of sale or service from service centers through branch banks, fast food counters and the like. Present systems do not provide the ability to use a recording device in a walk-in environment. The basis for a recording of an interaction includes an identified beginning and end. Phone call, email handling and web collaboration sessions all have a defined beginning and end that can be identified easily. Furthermore, most technological logging platforms enable the capturing of interactions and thus are able to provide additional information about the interaction. In frontal center there are no means of reporting of beginning and end of interactions, nor the ability to gain additional information about the interaction that would enable one to associate this “additional information” to it and to act on it. In referring to “additional information” we refer to information such as indication concerning the customer's identity, how long the customer has been waiting in line to be served, what service the customer intended to discuss when reaching the agent, and the like. Such information is readily available and commonly used in recording phone calls and can be obtained by CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) information or CDR/SMDR (Call Detail Reporting/Station Message Details Recording) connectivity. The walk-in environment is inherently characterized by people seeking service that come and leave according to a queue and there is no enabling platform for the communication. Additional aspect of the problem is the fact that the interaction in a walk-in environment has a visual aspect, which currently does not typically exist in remote communications discussed above. The visual, face-to-face interaction between agents and customers or others is important in this environment and therefore should be recorded too. The present solution deals with the described problems by solving the obstacles presented, providing a method for face-to-face recording, storing and retrieval, organization will be able to provide solutions to enforce quality management, exercise business analytic techniques and as direct consequence enhance quality of services in its remote branches. The accurate assessment of the quality of the agent's performance is quite important. The person skilled in the art will therefore appreciate that there is therefore a need for a simple new and novel method for capturing and analyzing Walk-in, face-to-face interaction for quality management purposes.